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Activists take their message to Arch Coal HQ

The Gazette’s Dr. Paul Nyden had the story this morning about seven anti-mountaintop removal activists who took their protest against the practice to Arch Coal’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis:

Seven people, including at least one West Virginian, locked themselves to a 500-pound potted tree inside Arch Coal’s headquarters in Creve Coeur, Mo. on Tuesday in a protest against strip mining.

A larger group performed songs and dances in the building’s lobby, according to the protesters, who are affiliated with the groups Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, and Mountain Justice.

“We’re here to halt Arch’s operations for as long as we can. These coal corporations do not answer to communities, they only consume them. We’re here to resist their unchecked power,” Margaret Fetzer, one of the protesters, said in a news release.

One thing that was a little puzzling was some of the comments about the status of Arch Coal’s Adkins Fork Surface Mine near Blair Mountain. The initial RAMPS press release said:

Arch’s Adkins Fork Surface Mine is blasting away Blair Mountain—the site of the second largest uprising in U.S. history and a milestone in the long-standing struggle between Appalachians and the coal companies.

Later, they issued a “correction” that said:

Our apologies. Our release we sent to you this morning incorrectly stated that Arch Coal’s Adkins Fork permit is blasting away at Blair Mountain. It should say the permit “is threatening to blast away Blair Mountain…”

And in his story, Dr. Nyden wrote:

Arch’s Adkins Fork Surface Mine has already begun working on Blair Mountain, where the historic confrontation between union miners and company guards developed in August 1921.